Chen Xiao Cai asked worriedly, "Is there any other punishment?"

"Nope," Lu Lin said.

Chen Xiao Cai nodded and said, "That's good."

……

Qin Yi who stayed outside the house walked into the room as he saw Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Cai finished talking.

"Boss Lin."

When Lu Lin heard Qin Yi calling him that, he was stunned and said, "Uncle Qin, don't call me like that please." Qin Yi was much older than him. In addition, Lu Lin hated putting on airs in front of people.

"You just call me Lin or Ah Lin."

Qin Yi smiled awkwardly. Qin Yi originally thought that it was inappropriate for Lu Lin to hand such a big store over to Chen Xiao Cai, but he watched Chen Xiao Cai make plans every day, settle the scores, and deal with all the matters properly. He was impressed by Cai and he thought young as Cai was, but in the future, Cai must have a promising career.

Chen Xiao Cai was taught by Lu Lin, Lu Lin must be even more capable. Although Lu Lin was younger than him, Qin Yi dared not underestimate him.

"Ah Lin, are my sons doing all right?"

"Very good. Qin Ming's splints can be removed soon. He will be able to jump and down in a few days. Qin Lang is quite good too. He is a strong boy and he looks like he has a lot of potential," Lu Lin said.

Hearing Lu Lin praise his sons so much, Qin Yi blushed a little. "Lang is just a hothead, he is nothing compared to Cai."

Lu Lin smiled and said, "That's not true. "

……

Lu Lin stayed for the night and he went back home the next day.

… …

Lu Lin handed a package to Mi and said, "Here, Cai bought you this."

Chen Xiao Mi was surprised, "Cai bought it for me?"

Lu Lin nodded and said, "Yes, our Manager Cai bought this for ya. He is doing great, I promised him he could take 5% as his commission from the store's profit. So, our Cai is a rich kid now."

Chen Xiao Mi could not help but feel proud of his younger brother.

"Not only did he bring things for you and Mai, he also asked me to bring a present for Shen Chi. I think Shen Chi's present seems to be even better than yours. Someone has stolen our Cai's heart," Lu Lin shook his head and said with affection.

"Shen Chi!" Chen Xiao Mi blinked and said, "Cai does seem to like Shen Chi a lot."

Lu Lin raised his eyebrows. It was easy for Chen Xiao Cai to have some puppy love with his friend at this age.

The girls in the village seemed to dislike Cai. The host Lu Lin seemed to have witnessed Chen Xiao Cai being ridiculed by the village girls.

Lu Lin thought to himself, 'Shen Chi is indeed a good child. He has a good temper, he is a quick learner and he has great patience. If Cai really marries, he won't be a troublemaker.'

It was hard for Chen Xiao Cai to manage the commercial house alone. Shen Chi could help out with his mathematics skills.

When Lu Lin first planned to send Chen Xiao Cai to Willow Town, he had thought about letting Shen Chi go too.

However, Shen Chi was a Bio who was supposed to stay at home and Lu Lin didn't have much confidence in convincing Granny Shen.

Willow Town was a totally new environment for them. It took time to gain their foothold. Plus Shen Chi would have to share a bedroom with Cai, that was a bit improper.

Chen Xiao Mi blinked and said, "Let's wait and see, they are still young."

Lu Lin nodded and said, "Yeah, they are just two little kids!" In modern society, dating at this age on campus in China was a big taboo.

……

"Chi, where did you get these exquisite pastries? I'm afraid it's worth a lot of silver. Although Lu Lin is generous, it's not good for us to take advantage of him," Granny Shen told Shen Chi.

Shen Chi said hesitantly, " Lin Gege gave me this package. He said Cai bought this for me, some specialties from Willow Town. I told Lin Gege I cannot just take presents from Cai like this, but Lin Gege told me that Cai insist on me accepting this."

Granny Shen heard Shen Chi's words and said hesitantly, "It's from Cai! I haven't seen him for so long."

Shen Chi nodded and said, " Lin Gege said that he's doing very well in Willow Town. He has been so busy and he can't visit us any time soon."

Granny Shen was surprised, "I'm glad to hear Cai is doing great, but where does he get the money to buy you the pastries?"

Shen Chi shook his head, "It's his wage. He's a manager now, a shopkeeper. He has more than one tael of silver per month."

Granny Shen was shocked when she heard Cai's salary. "Good job, Cai! However, it is not easy for him to leave his hometown and work alone like this!"

Shen Chi nodded and said, "Yeah! I find him very courageous and capable as well!"

"To be honest, we all need to thank Cai. The business in Willow Town is booming, we all get more work to do, how nice," Granny Shen sighed with emotion.

Granny Shen had been so grateful for the work mode, she would have a bonus when she hit all the goals, and on top of that the food and accommodation were included. She could earn about 1 tael of silver per month.

There were quite a few embroiders working in the store. They were all grateful that Cai was doing so well in Willow Town, they got to get more work and more pay thanks to the new branch's booming business.

Ridiculous Rumor

Lu Lin found that the aesthetics of Forest Town and Willow Town seemed to be somewhat different. Some of the bags that no one showed any interest in Forest Town's were quite popular when they were brought to Willow Town. Of course, there were also some popular bags in Forest Town that got old-shouldered in Willow Town.

Lu Lin found that Forest Town and Willow Town both had a few so-called 'influencers'. The bags that these people bought were more likely to become the popular ones, Lu Lin couldn't help but recall those 'beauty influencers' on Instagrax.

During this period of time, Lu Lin launched a few new handbags.

For some rich people, what mattered most to them was not money, but that they could buy good things as soon as possible. Therefore, although there was a 'copycat' shop in town with more competitive prices, the latest bags were still very popular.

Granny Shen stayed in town for a while and she took Shen Chi back to the village this day.

Knowing that Granny Shen was going back, Lu Lin lent the mule carriage to Granny Shen.

Granny Shen was getting more and more familiar with Lu Lin, so she didn't reject it. She thought about bringing more vegetables for Lu Lin as a return gift when she came back.

Lu Lin had been busy and sometimes he just went to the market to buy vegetables. In Granny Shen's opinion, this kind of behavior was a huge waste!

Granny Shen took Shen Chi to work in the farmland as soon as they arrived home. Several villagers were surprised to see Granny Shen and Shen Chi, they surrounded them quickly.

"Granny Shen, you're back! I haven't seen you for quite a while!"

Granny Shen smiled and said, "Yeah!"

"Granny Shen, you and Shen Chi didn't come back very often. Are you living in town?"

"Yeah!"

"The rent in town is so expensive. Where do you live?"

"The master is rich, and there are a few servants' rooms. Me and Chi are living in one of the servants room." With that Granny realized it must be Lu Lin who had negotiated a room for her and Chi.

Accommodation was a big problem. The female workers in this store were all relatively close to the town. If they lived far away, they would have to waste a lot of time commuting.

"Chi, you are staying in town every day now, you are no longer a bumpkin boy."

Shen Chi smiled awkwardly, "Auntie, you are joking."

"How is that joking? I heard that Chen Xiao Mi's brother Chen Xiao Cai used to work in the same shop as you, but now he is nowhere to be seen. Have they sold him?" A chubby woman asked in a careless manner.

Shen Chi was startled by the woman's words. "How is that possible?"

The woman smiled awkwardly and said, "I heard it from Grandma Chen. Grandma Chen said the reason why Chen Xiao Mi stopped her from selling Cai was because he wanted to sell Cai and keep the money to himself."

Shen Chi blinked. It was hard to imagine that there would be such ridiculous rumors in the village.

Chen Xiao Cai was sent to Willow Town by Lu Lin to be the shopkeeper. Some people in the village thought that Cai was sold!

"Granny Shen! What does Lu Lin do in town? How come I heard that he is in charge of all the female workers?"

Granny Shen smiled and said, "He is in charge. Maybe it is the boss's idea."

"Granny Shen! Look at my embroidery skills! Can you take me to the shop and give me a job?"

Granny Shen said, "Well, I don't have that authority."

Although the residence area was quite spacious, all the rooms except the main bedroom for the shop owner were taken. The Chen Brothers and Lu Lin had taken the West and the East bedrooms. There might be a servants' room left, but Granny Shen didn't lie, only Lu Lin had the authority to hire people.

Although three servants' rooms sounded a lot, some female workers might stay in the servants 'rooms on rainy days. Hence, they were not always empty.

Granny Shen and Shen Chi spent their whole day working in the farmland. But from time to time people would come up to Granny Shen and ask her if they could also go work in to the shop.

Seeing that Granny Shen disagreed, people would just mean mug her.

Granny Shen was helpless. She took care of the farmland and returned to town in advance.

……

Lu Lin looked at Shen Chi and said in surprise, "Someone from the Chen family said that I sold Xiao Cai, have you heard that in the village?"

Shen Chi nodded. "Yes! Some villagers even still believe it."

When Shen Chi returned to the village, he heard a lot of rumors. A lot of them were about how Lu Lin was worried that Chen Xiao Cai would take away all his and Chen Xiao Mi's money in the future, so he sold Chen Xiao Cai.

Tang kept complaining all day. She said Lu Lin was an idiot, he sold Xiao Cai and that was a good move, but he should have sent some money to them.

Some people suspected that Lu Lin was worried that Xiao Mi would give all the money to Xiao Cai in the future, so he sold Xiao Cai in advance.

Lu Lin stood akimbo, he couldn't help scratching his hair with frustration. He couldn't believe people altuaclly believe those ridiculous rumors!

Lu Lin took a deep breath and couldn't help pondering. It had been a while since he sent Chen Xiao Cai to Willow Town. It was indeed not appropriate for a child to stay outside for so long.

"You said you wanted to send Wan Li to Willow Town and ask Cai to back?" asked Chen Xiao Mi.

Lu Lin nodded and said, "Yes, I plan to swap their positions."

Chen Xiao Mi hadn't seen Chen Xiao Cai for some time, he missed him.

Lu Lin sighed and he thought about the disadvantages.

"Mi, the Chen family will probably come and cause trouble again when they see Cai in the shop, the Chen family couldn't sit still when Cai was just a salesperson in the shop, imagine when they see Cai managing the store."

Chen Xiao Mi pouted and said, "If they make trouble, I will just kick them out."

Lu Lin thought for a moment and said, "All righty then, let's welcome our boy home then."

……

Granny Shen looked at Shen Chi and said, "Ah Chi, you're in a good mood!"

Shen Chi said awkwardly, " Lin Gege said Cai would be back soon."

Granny Shen asked with concern, "Why is that? How about the new branch at Willow Town then? "

Shen Chi blinked and said, "I heard that Manager Wan will head over Willow Town. Manager Wan is older and more experienced."

Granny Shen was a little surprised, "Why did Lu Lin suddenly transfer Cai back? Is Cai all right? Did he make trouble? " In Granny Shen's opinion, Chen Xiao Cai was capable, but he was still too young.

"No, Cai is doing great. However, I told Lin Gege that some villagers said he sold Cai. Maybe that's the reason…" Shen Chi lowered his head.

Shen Chi always hoped that Chen Xiao Cai would come back, but he didn't expect Lu Lin would ask Cai to come back due to those rumors. He just wanted to give Lu Lin a friendly reminder.

After a few days, Lu Lin and Wan Li delivered a batch of bags to Willow Town together, the Wan Li stayed over and he brought and Chen Xiao Cai back.

……

Chen Xiao Mai saw Chen Xiao Cai and screamed. He threw himself at his Second Brother.

The two brothers who hadn't seen each other for a long time both got a bit emotional.

Shen Chi stood aside and looked at Chen Xiao Cai quietly. Their eyes met and they both immediately blushed.

Lu Lin saw that and grinned, 'These two, sweet sweet puppy love! But they are indeed too young, they are kids.'

But on a second thought, Lu Lin thought that it wasn't a bad idea for the two kids to meet the one they adored at such a young age. A lot of people in this time and space had to accept arranged marriage, most of them hadn't seen each other before the wedding day. And they ended up being stuck in a terrible marriage but neither of them had the courage to get a divorce.

Lu Lin found it strange that although there were a lot of arranged marriages here, there were few people chose to get a divorce.

In a place where food and clothing were a problem, divorce was not really considered by many people. In addition, this place was very strict in etiquette and ethical codes. Even if many women were being mistreated, they wouldn't even think about getting a divorce.

Chen Xiao Cai took over the position of manager in the shop in Forest Town. Lu Lin asked Shen Chi to help him.

Shen Chi recently had more time to learn a mathematics and practice abacus, he had made huge progress on that.

Wan Li, who was managing the shop before Cai took over, was actually a servant. But people didn't know that and they respected Wan Li a great deal.

And now a lot of people didn't take Chen Xiao Cai and Shen Chi seriously. There were often some villagers from Big Stone Village who came to the shop to just have a chitchat and ask information about vacancies.

Sometimes, there was a lot of people in the store who didn't come to buy anything. They were all there chatting with Chen Xiao Cai and Shen Chi. Most of them were very well-behaved, but there were one or two of them who kept rubbing the bags with their dirty hands.

Chen Xiao Cai was great in building a rapport with customers, but his hands were tied when the villagers kept talking to him.

Fortunately, it was not easy for the villagers to come to town, the chitchats didn't happen every day.

……

"Chen Xiao Cai is so young, but he is so skillful in abacus!"

"Chen Xiao Cai was so thin and sickly, but now he looks quite handsome!"

"This Chen Xiao Cai is helping in the store. He should also have monthly wage. The Chen Xiao Mi family is working in the town, so they must have made a lot of money.

The villagers liked to go to the Sino Commercial House to take a look when they went to the market in town. Soon villagers started to talk about Cai with admiration.

Grandma Chen was not happy when she heard the village people praise her grandson Chen Xiao Cai. Grandma Chen favored her first son and his family, therefore, she felt sulky instead of proud or happy when she heard Chen Xiao Mi was doing well in town.

"I didn't expect the Chen brothers to really gain a foothold in town," Zhang Cheng was surprised.

"I went to Sino Commercial House a few days ago. The business in the store is very good," Zhang Jin said.

Zhang Cheng said with envy, "Chen Xiao Mi is really lucky. He and his family are working in such a store. Behind that store is a residence area. It seems that Lu Lin is in charge of arranging the accommodation for all the workers. If Lu Lin has such power, maybe people in our village could stay in the store for the night whenever we go to town."

Zhang Jin said helplessly, "Father, what are you talking about? The house was not Lu Lin's, we cannot trouble him so much if it was Lu Lin's."

Getting refuted by his son, Zhang Cheng said unhappily, "Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi are from our village. It's only natural to help the villagers. How expensive the inn in town is?! I heard that Granny Shen and Shen Chi have occupied a room, so have some mountain people. There are two children who live there too."

Zhang Jin glanced at Zhang Cheng and said sullenly, "Father, why did you bring this up all of a sudden? What are the villagers saying now? Father, we need to be on good terms with the Chens, let's not offend them."

Zhang Cheng said awkwardly, "I'm just saying it casually, but Lu Lin has done something wrong, there are so many embroidery ladies in our village, but he hasn't hired even one of our villagers."

"Did Aunty say something to you?" Zhang Jin had an aunt who had some embroidery skills. His Aunt would occasionally sell some embroidery products in town to better support her family. But this Aunt of his liked to take advantage of people.

Zhang Jin's wife was also good at embroidery. Some time ago, that aunt had come over to take his wife's embroidery and said that she was going to help them to sell the products in town.

Her wife thought that her aunt's had a stable customer base, so she was loud in her thanks when Aunt said she would help her. However, Aunt only gave them a pathetic amount of money in the end saying the market had crashed. The money aunt gave them couldn't even cover the cost of the needle and thread.

A few times later, her wife no longer believed this aunt. As far as Zhang Jin knew, his aunt had indeed lied, she had pocketed the profit.

"Your aunt's skills are as great as Granny Shen's. Plus Granny Shen is old." Zhang Cheng said.

Zhang Jin said sullenly, "Father, Lu Lin has every right to hire whoever he wants. Don't get involved in this."

His aunt was not a kind-hearted person. As far as he knew, Granny Shen's position in the shop was quite important. The Chen brothers are doing well now. Zhang Jin didn't want to offend them or Granny Shen.

But he had heard that two female workers in their store were poached by a rival shop, which seemed to have affected them quite a bit.

Fullmoon-shaped Fan

With two stores in hand, plus Lu Lin had been launching new designs from time to time, the business of Sino Commercial House was not bad, and the income was stable.

Lu Lin was still doing the wine-making business.

"Lu Lin, is it true you have something called fridge in your hometown?. You can have ice in summer?"

"Yes! The benefits of fridge are too many."

"Do you know how to make a fridge?" Chen Xiao Mi looked at Lu Lin with admiration.

'Chen Xiao Mi, you think too highly of him. Although I've learned some circuit issues on my physics books, but I have forgotten them all. "No, I don't."

Chen Xiao Mi sighed, "It's a pity."

Lu Lin smiled. "If you want ice in this summer, you don't have to have a fridge. It seems like there are some kind of stone called saltpeter that can absorb a large amount of heat in the water and condense water into ice. However, I'm not sure whether it's actually feasible."

Chen Xiao Mi narrowed his eyes and said, "I heard that there is ice in summer in the Imperial Palace."

In this time and space, it was not impossible to use ice in summer. The most common method was to create an ice cellar. Most of the ice cellars were built underground. In winter, the ice was stored in the ice cellar to isolate light and heat and you could use the ice stored in the cellar in summer.

But all ice cellars were built at tremendous cost, it was not something the common people could afford. It was usually a luxury for members of the imperial house.

Lu Lin held his chin and said, "Let's not covet stuff that only the Emperor can enjoy."

Chen Xiao Mi pulled over a piece of cloth and said doubtfully, "You recently found some embroidery ladies in the village and you asked them to work on some strange things!"

Lu Lin laughed and shook his head, "We are not making strange things. I think it's a little boring to only sell schoolbags, so I want to sell full moon-shaped fans."

A while ago, many people in the village came over to ask him if he was hiring embroidery ladies. The business in the store was on the right track now, they didn't need to hire any more embroidery ladies. If Lu Lin hired new workers and replace them with the old ones, it would definitely cause dissatisfaction, not to mention that Lu Lin did not want to change people.

It was easy to offend people if he just spurned them. Lu Lin just told the villagers that he was going to buy some delicate embroidery products recently. If people in the village embroidered any embroidery, they could come to him and he would pay a handsome price.

"Full-moon shaped fan? What is that?"

"It's a round fan made of cloth or other fabric, it is an accessory popular with ladies."

"Is it also something from your hometown?"

Lu Lin nodded and said, "Yeah!" The fans here were divided into two types. One was palm-leaf fan and the other was folding paper fan.

The price of a palm-leaf fan was very cheap, you could get one with 5 cents. Paper fans were more pricy, it varied from 10 cents to several tales of silver, all depend on the craftsmanship and the artist who painted or inscribed on the fan.

Lu Lin nodded, "Yeah! I wanted to make full moon-shaped fans, other fans are so boring, I love it the artists can do landscape painting, ink painting, flower-and-bird painting on full moon-shaped fans."

Most of the fans used by the young ladies were paper fans. No one in this time and space had come up with the idea of making full-moon shaped fans.

Recently, it was getting hotter and hotter. He should be able to take the opportunity to make a profit.

Many of the embroidery ladies in the village studied embroidery since they were young, they were all pretty great. Lu Lin had drawn some patterns and asked them to embroider on the fans, the finished products were very beautiful.

"Speaking of embroidery ladies, a few days ago, I met a strange character," Lu Lin said.

Chen Xiao Mi glanced at Lu Lin and said, "Who is it?"

Lu Lin shook his head and said, "I didn't recognize her, but she indeed looked very familiar, I'm sure I've seen her before. She's fat and arrogant. As soon as she came over, she told me that she was great at embroidery. She told me to fire Granny Shen and said that Granny Shen were old so her hands must be shaky. She said she could do better."

"Give her a good beating!"

Lu Lin nodded and said, "I turned her down. Honestly, Mi, I value Granny Shen's personality as much as her craftsmanship." Lu Lin paused for a second and said, "However, after I rejected her, the woman said that I didn't want to offend the Village Head Zhang Cheng."

Chen Xiao Mi nodded and said, "I see, maybe she is Village Head's sister. Our Village Head has a sister who likes to take advantage of people in his name, but the Village Head seems to really dote on this sister."

"Oh I see!" Knowing the woman was the Village Head's sister, everything made sense, but Lu Lin didn't care much. He and the people he cared about were no longer living in the village and naturally no one could control them.

In fact, Lu Lin didn't like Zhang Cheng in the first place. In the host Lu Lin's memory, Zhang Cheng had persuaded his father to listen to Grandma Lu and join the army, otherwise villagers would call him unfilial. He had also said Lu Cheng Yu would have great achievements in the future and they could all ride on his coattails.

In Lu Lin's opinion, Zhang Cheng looked like he tried hard to bring glory to the village, , but he was just a guy who considered himself always right.

……

Lu Lin said that he would buy the embroidery products with a good price, so the villagers actively came over to collect the needles and thread.

Because they were all from the same village, Lu Lin didn't charge any deposit from them for the needles and thread. However, all of them had signed in and registered how much stuff they had taken. You needed to hand over your products if you wanted to collect more needles and thread.

Most people in the village were honest and would not swindle, but Lu Lin enforced that system just in case.

Soon, various embroidery products were delivered to Lu Lin one after another. Lu Lin gave them good money as he promised.

During this period of time, Chen Xiao Mi had been busy making fans.

The frames, coverings and handles were made by the ladies, but it was Chen Xiao Mi who was in charge of the last step. Lu Lin found that Chen Xiao Mi seemed to be artistic, he had done an amazing job in putting every part together.

Recently, Lu Lin had ordered quite a lot of frames and coverings. However, the workers had no idea what they were making, they all thought the coverings were for the bags. After all, the Sino Commercial House would launch a new bag from time to time.

After accumulating a batch of fans, Lu Lin released the first batch in the store, they were sold for 200 cents each.

Sino Commercial House was the most popular shopping destination for wealthy ladies in town, they went crazy over the fans on the first day.

Their bags were mainly targeted at the students, while the fans were aimed at rich ladies. The exquisite fans had immediately attracted quite a few rich ladies, and some of them would just buy dozens of them as presents to friends.

Full moon shaped-fans were so exquisite, they made perfect presents.

"This is mine."

"But I come first."

"I said I wanted to buy it earlier than you."

……

Chen Xiao Cai and Shen Chi were shocked by the two ladies fighting for the fan. Shen Chi really did not understand it! If there was only one fan left in the store, the fight was understandable, but there were still seven fans on the rack! The next second two ladies said at the same time, "I want them all, all seven of them!"

"Manager, what do you think we should do?" The two young ladies turned their eyes to Chen Xiao Cai.

Chen Xiao Cai thought for a while and said tentatively, "How about half for each?"

"But I put my hand on the fan first! Why do I need to let her have half? "

"That's so not true! You elbowed your way through me! I'll pick first, and you can have the rest."

……

Chen Xiao Cai suddenly recalled what Lu Lin once said. 'People would get competitive when there are a lot of customers in the store.' The young lady in green who came earlier was originally picking out fans one by one, but she couldn't decide which one to buy. When the young lady in purple came in and put her hand on one, the young lady in green panicked and said she wanted them all.

The two ladies might know each other and it seemed like neither of them was willing to take a step back.

Chen Xiao Cai asked Shen Chi to go to the backyard to pick up a new batch of fans and with that the two ladies bought what they wanted and left the store. The fans were so popular, some designs were sold out within just a few days.

Chen Xiao Cai said with disbelief, "I didn't expect the fan to be so popular."

Shen Chi nodded, "Yeah!"

In Shen Chi's opinion, palm-leaf fans were cheaper and more practical. People in the village liked to grab a big palm-leaf fan and sit in the yard after dinner.

The full moon shaped-fans were sold for 200 cents each! That was outrageous! However, it seemed like many rich ladies were crazy for them. Some young masters also came to the store to buy fans as presents to their sweethearts and elder female relatives.

After they launched fans, the schoolbag business also became better because there were more people browsing and hanging out in the store.

Chen Xiao Cai was always so busy, Chen Xiao Mi would have to help him from time to time, but they both enjoyed it.

The exquisite fans suddenly became a symbol of elegance in the eyes of the rich ladies in Forest Town.

Lu Lin sent a batch of fans to Willow Town, they were a hit there as well.

……

In the Lus' house.

Lin Xiu'er looked at the fan in Li Fang Yue's hand and complained, "We don't have enough food to eat at home. But look at you, spending so much money on something so useless."